(kreuz.net, Basel) Msgr Felix Gmür is the new Bishop of Basel, according to the Vatican Press Service. Pope Benedict XVI, had assumed the choice of the Basel Cathedral on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary on the 8th of September. Prior to that, Msgr Gmür worked as necktie priest and General Secretary of the Swiss Bishops conference. A further speculation of the protestant journalist and church-hater Micheal Meier, that it would have been Dennis Theurillat (60), has proven itself to be false.

Kansas City Lawsuit Accuses Reno-area Priest of Sexual Assault By Martha Bellisle The Register-Journal October 21, 2010 http://www.rgj.com/article/20101021/NEWS01/101021073/1321/news [Father Tom Cronin leads the Christmas morning mass at Saint Mary in the Mountains Catholic Church in Virginia City on Friday, Dec. 25. 2009. (David B. Parker/RGJ file)] Father Tom Cronin leads the Christmas morning mass at Saint Mary in the Mountains Catholic Church in Virginia City on Friday, Dec. 25. 2009. (David B. Parker/RGJ file) A Catholic priest working in the Reno area was accused in a civil lawsuit filed in Kansas City, Mo., of molesting and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old...

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium sparked an uproar today after the release of a new translation of a book in which he says the AIDS epidemic is a “sort of inherent justice” resulting from the “mistreatment of the profound nature of human love.” Coming just weeks after a report that detailed the abuse of hundreds of children by Catholic priests over several decades in Belgium, the comments of Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard has plunged the Church into a fresh controversy. Political leaders, media, medical institutions and gay rights campaigners have all lined up to denounce his words....

On Sunday, September 26, 2010, during Holy Mass at St. John's Abbey on the campus of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, 24 people were refused Holy Communion by Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. They were displaying rainbow buttons and rainbow sashes in direct defiance of the direction of the Diocese and thereby clearly expressing their rejection of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Anyone who comes forward to receive the Holy Eucharist is professing to be in Communion with the Church. That means they accept her moral teaching. This open show of defiance...

Border Patrol agents trying to keep up with the pace of illegal immigration along the southwest border have gotten stuck in a kind of bureaucratic limbo, with a new government report showing federal regulations have stalled projects for months. In one case, it took the Bureau of Land Management almost eight months to issue a permit allowing Border Patrol to move an underground sensor in New Mexico. In another, Border Patrol officials were denied permission to improve maintenance on roads and surveillance in California, forcing the patrol routes north. In another, it took more than four months for the agency...

In time for the upcoming Respect Life Month of October, Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota presided over an annual Mass and led a procession over 700 people to a local abortion clinic last Sunday, encountering oppositional protestors for the first time. The Diocese of Fargo estimated that on Sunday, 700 to 800 people from St. Mary’s Cathedral processed to the local Red River Women’s Clinic, North Dakota’s only abortion facility in downtown Fargo. Director of Communications for the diocese Tanya R. Watterud told CNA that Bishop Aquila led the procession several blocks, carrying a monstrance with Blessed Sacrament...

. . .At a second meeting, Rev. Cooper said that Bishop Ullestad told him "You don't understand. You could be in really serious trouble." Rev. Cooper replied, "Do what you have to do . . . I stand by what I said." Rev. Cooper went on to say that during the meeting there "really was a feeling that either I recant or I was done, at least from the synod's perspective. . ." (full article linked above)

Wednesday September 8, 2010 Bulgarian Bishop Honors Mayor with Award for Banning Gay Pride Parade By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiSOFIA, September 8, 2010, (LifeSiteNews.com) - The mayor of the city of Pazarzhik, Todor Popov, and local lawyer Stefan Yanev have been awarded a prestigious award for their role in keeping a “gay pride” parade out of the city. Bulgarian Orthodox Church Bishop Nikolay of the Plovdiv Diocese presented the pair with the highest order of the Plovdiv Bishopric, the "Holy Apostle Hermas" medal.Last month, municipal authorities in Pazardzhik passed a bylaw banning displays of sexuality in public, a measure intended...

"Of the 264 million acres under BLM management, some 130- to 140-million acres are worthy of consideration as treasured lands. These areas [are] roughly equivalent in size to Colorado and Wyoming combined." -BLM's Treasured Lanscapes paper

America ought to possess a clearly defined and laid out set of municipal jurisdictions; the states having one level of control in governing, while the federal branches of government have their own, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said at The Heritage Foundation Bloggers Briefing on July 27, 2010. Rep. Bishop is on the Tenth Amendment Task Force in Congress. Back in 2007, a quarter of a million people working for the federal government set down and established official bylaws and regulations on the American public, with approximately four thousand joining them in this task each year, Rep. Bishop pointed out. “We...

SPRINGFIELD - As his defense lawyer feared, a videotaped deposition of disgraced Bishop Thomas L. Dupre may soon make the Internet in the wink of a cybereye, after a Hampden Superior Court judge denied his motion to keep the interview from the public.

Concerns about a host of species for decades have prompted standoffs between border and environmental officials. Border officers have limited access to federal lands in some of the most heavily trafficked areas because of the harm the patrols could do to the environment. But pronghorn preservation is popping up more and more as a barrier to Border Patrol and catching the attention of some on Capitol Hill.

As the threat of violence stemming from illegal immigration hangs over federal lands in southern Arizona, an internal memo from 2007 reveals that refuge officers have been spending most of their time struggling to deal with border-related activities instead of protecting wildlife habitat.

Curious, I contacted Lowell and asked him if he was willing to talk to Milbank. Here's what Lowell said: "I would be happy to talk to Dana Milbank and, in fact, I would like to invite him to a picnic. We could walk a mile or so up Peck Canyon from the Atascosa Ranch headquarters past where the body was found, which is being autopsied to the place where five (or more) innocent Mexicans (who claim they had broken only a few Federal laws) were fired on about two weeks ago by gentlemen in black camo shooting AK 47’s, he...

In the months preceding the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, which reshaped the principles governing the size and purpose of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was busy at work. Its Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development issued various position papers urging the administration to drastically reduce the role and size of the arsenal. Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore, previously Archbishop for the Military Services, took the message to venues ranging from a deterrence conference hosted by U.S. Strategic Command (the command responsible for nuclear-strike operations) to the Global Zero Summit in Paris. Bishop Howard...

As if fighting terrorism weren't complicated enough, the United States has a new national security threat to worry about: grizzly bears. Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee say that environmental laws protecting grizzlies and other wild animals along rural portions of the U.S.-Canada border have handcuffed U.S. Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security agents, potentially making it easier for would-be terrorists to slip into the country.

Iskenderun (AsiaNews) - Today at 4pm local time the funeral will take place of Msgr. Padovese, killed by his driver, Murat Altun, strangely "crazed" last June 3. Meanwhile, new details have emerged on the dynamics and motives of the killing that has prostrated the Turkish Church. The funeral ceremony will be held in the Church of the Annunciation, with the participation of the apostolic nuncio, Mgr. Antonio Lucibello, the Latin bishops of Istanbul and Izmir, the Armenian Catholic Bishop of Istanbul, as well as the priests in Turkey and representatives of international embassies. There will also be a delegate of...

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A Catholic bishop who was a leading figure in Christian communities in the Middle East was stabbed to death at his home in southern Turkey Thursday, and police arrested his driver in connection with the attack. The motive for the killing of Luigi Padovese, apostolic vicar for Anatolia, in the town of Iskenderun was not known. Previous attacks on Christians have raised concerns about the safety of religious minorities in Muslim Turkey. Hatay Provincial Governor Mehmet Celalettin Lekesiz told the state-run news agency Anatolian there was no immediate evidence of a political motive and the bishop's driver...

The starting point for ministering to migrants, refugees, trafficked persons is to understand their situation and all its components, personal, social, economic, political in the light of God’s Word and to recognize its commitment to get involved. Naturally it also has to address those factors that cause their uprootedness. In this commitment the Church is guided by the “permanent principles” of its “social doctrine [that] constitute the very heart of Catholic social teaching.” So said the President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio, in his opening speech at the...

(RNS1) Pope Benedict XVI bestows the pallium (a woolen mantle that denotes the authority of an archbishop) on Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington during a ceremony at the Vatican in 2006. Religion News Service file photo by Joann Keane. | VATICAN CITY (RNS) Is Pope Benedict XVI legally responsible for the actions of U.S. Catholic bishops who mishandled cases of pedophile priests, allowing them to sexually abuse more children? Some plaintiffsâ€™ lawyers are arguing that victims of clerical sex abuse should be able to sue the Vatican itself for damages, in large part because they say bishops are effectively employees...

A Utah County man allegedly defrauded family, friends and fellow LDS Church members out of about $17 million in a deal in which he was to buy Texas oil refineries and an old paper mill that was to be dismantled and sold for scrap metal. Dennis Lee Keating II, of Highland, entered into an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle the allegations without admitting or denying them. And the licensed securities agent agreed to not violate securities laws and to not associate with any broker, dealer or investment adviser. In addition, Keating will be assessed a penalty...

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told CNSNews.com that national security and ecological values can coexist at the U.S.-Mexico border. The comments came amid Republican criticism that the Interior Department is using conservation as a pretext to interfere with U.S. Border Patrol operations on federal lands, particularly when it comes to stopping illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was asked in a Feb. 26, 2010, letter from Western Caucus Chairman Rep. Rob Bishop, R-UT, and other representatives from western states for the missing pages from a leaked government memo that “contained detailed information about the administration’s plans to designate as many as 14 new national monuments and lock up as much as 13 million acres in states throughout the West.”

BRUSSELS — Belgium's longest serving bishop resigned Friday, expressing sorrow for having sexually abused a young boy both as a priest and after becoming a bishop in 1984. The resignation of Roger Vangheluwe, 73, the Bishop of Bruges, was the first from Belgium since a child abuse scandal began testing the Catholic Church several months ago in Europe and the United States. His resignation stands out because while several bishops have resigned amid the abuse scandal — three from Ireland in the past four months alone — they did so under the weight of accusations they shielded pedophiles in their...

A feud between the Departments of the Interior and Homeland Security over federal wilderness areas that constitute 40 percent of the nation's southern border has been undermining the mission of both agencies for nearly a decade. This adolescent refusal to cooperate threatens the security of all Americans. That much was made clear March 27 when Arizona rancher Rob Krentz and his dog were shot to death by someone crossing the border illegally. The murderer then escaped in a pronghorn antelope protection area that the Interior Department placed off limits to Border Patrol agents. Krentz had repeatedly complained that illegals were...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, introduced a bill Wednesday seeking to end the Interior Department's current practice of denying the U.S. Border Patrol access to wilderness and other protected federal lands along the Mexico-U.S. border. He said that would ensure that Interior's policies "no longer enable dangerous criminals to co-opt federal border lands as their drug trafficking highways." Bishop for months has been calling for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to change the policy on his own. Bishop, the ranking Republican on a subcommittee that oversees national parks and public lands, visited the border earlier this year and said he...

The shocking tragedy in Russia today includes the news that several prominent members of the clergy were among those killed: The Holy Father expressed his sorrow over the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and those accompanying him on a flight to Russia on Saturday morning. Pope Benedict remembered all of those who died and implored "a special blessing to the people of Poland from God omnipotent." According to CNN, President Kaczynski, his wife, top members of the Polish government, army and several Church authorities were on the plane that went down just seconds from landing at the airport...

Featured Term (selected at random):VICAR-GENERAL A legitimately deputized assistant to a bishop with ordinary jurisdiction over an entire diocese. His term of office expires with the death, resignation, or transfer of the bishop. Unless the size of a diocese or diversity of rites absolutely requires it, there may be only one vicar-general appointed. He should be an experienced priest of excellent moral character. The vicar-general may also be an auxiliary bishop. In view of its importance the office is regulated by definite legislation in the Church's canon law. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic...

Heber City » Minutes after a judge ordered 68-year-old Village of Hope co-founder Lon Harvey Kennard held without bail on charges that he sexually abused two of his adopted daughters Wednesday, his family issued a public apology. Verl Kennard, one of Kennard's six biological children, provided a prepared statement outside the courtroom and said the family was badly shaken but holding together. "We want him to pay for what he's done," Verl Kennard said of his father. "And we want him to get help." The statement reads: "The recent arrest of Lon Harvey Kennard, Sr., who in the past has...

DUBLIN - Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation Wednesday of Bishop John Magee, a former papal aide who stands accused of endangering children by failing to follow the Irish church's own rules on reporting suspected pedophile priests to police. Magee apologized to victims of any pedophile priests who were kept in parish posts since he took charge of the southwest Irish diocese of Cloyne in 1987. "To those whom I have failed in any way, or through any omission of mine have made suffer, I beg forgiveness and pardon," the 73-year-old Magee said in a statement.

As current federal health-care legislation moves forward toward law, we need to draw several lessons from events of the last weeks and months: First, the bill passed by the House on March 21 is a failure of decent lawmaking. It has not been “fixed.” It remains unethical and defective on all of the issues pressed by the U.S. bishops and prolife groups for the past seven months. Second, the Executive Order promised by the White House to ban the use of federal funds for abortion does not solve the many problems with the bill, which is why the bishops did...

Former House Majority Leader Kevin Garn was cited for driving under the influence in 2006, as he was attempting to return to politics and later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge. Salt Lake City Chief Prosecutor Sim Gill said Salt Lake City police received a call in May 2006 reporting a person passed out in a car at a downtown hotel. "They could smell the odor of alcohol. Based on that, they decided to do a DUI investigation. They did a field sobriety test," Gill said. "Based on their observation, they reached the conclusion that they thought the person was...

To the Editor: A common image of Christ throughout Christianity is that of the "Good Shepherd." Christ compared Himself to a shepherd and stated that, "I know my sheep and my sheep know me." As Catholics, we believe that the bishop of a diocese acts in Christ's place as a shepherd for the people. This is symbolized by the bishop's crozier (a staff that resembles a shepherd's staff). This week the students in the Catholic schools of Schuylkill County have been able to witness the shepherding actions of their bishop, Bishop John Barres. On Monday, Bishop Barres visited St. Stephen...

STATE OF GEORGIA OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR Sonny Perdue GOVERNOR OP-ED / For Immediate Release Contact: Office of Communications Saturday, March 20, 2010 (404) 651-7774 ***Editor’s Note: Below is an op-ed by Governor Sonny Perdue. The Governor’s Office is aware of the late notice, but please consider this op-ed for publication in your opinions section or on your website.*** Bishop’s Healthcare Vote Important for Georgians to Watch By Governor Sonny Perdue Last Thursday, I wrote to Congressmen Sanford Bishop and John Barrow asking them to put the needs of their districts and state before their political party, and oppose the...

Richard Doerflinger doesn't look the part of a high-powered political strategist. Bearded and bespectacled, he works in a small, cluttered office out of one of Washington’s less fashionable neighborhoods, far from the lobbying bastions of K Street. Yet as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' point man on abortion, Doerflinger has emerged as a major player in the health care debate, one likely to play a pivotal role in the outcome. It was Doerflinger who orchestrated the bishops’ successful campaign late last year to add a tough anti-abortion provision to the House legislation. The Senate adopted less stringent language....

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt blew nearly $560,000 in campaign cash last year - much of it on lavish meals and a family-friendly payroll that includes his ex-wife, son-in-law and daughter - stoking speculation the Quincy Democrat is emptying his war chest and won’t seek re-election. -snip- Delahunt told the Herald last week that he was still weighing whether to seek re-election, but Democratic Party sources have privately indicated his departure is anticipated - and expected to draw a host of candidates-in-waiting out of the woodwork.

The Amy Bishop debacle has gone from horrifying to humiliating over the past week - and it’s getting worse by the day. Amid the cacophony and the finger-pointing, somebody needs to play the role of the adult. Braintree and State Police were corrupt, or incompetent, or perhaps both, when they let Bishop walk completely free after she shot her younger brother in the chest in 1986 and ran around town with a shotgun under her arm. Now that Bishop has allegedly killed three of her colleagues at the University of Alabama and critically wounded two others, an embarrassing blame-game is...

Amy Bishop, neuroscientist, inventor, murder suspect, has become bigger than life, a symbol for those who think that genius is close to madness, or that women cannot get ahead in science, or that tenure systems in universities are brutalizing — or even that progress against fatal diseases is so important that someone like Dr. Bishop should be set free to pursue cures. At least that is what emerges from hundreds of comments on the Internet about Dr. Bishop, the assistant professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville charged with shooting six colleagues — three of them fatally — at...

Tensions are starting to boil between one Boston talk radio host and a local prosecutor in charge when accused Alabama rampage killer Amy Bishop killed her brother with a shotgun blast in their Braintree home in 1986. John Kivlan, a former Norfolk Country assistant district attorney, left an ominous message for WTKK-FM (96.9) yakker Michael Graham during Friday’s show. (Graham is an op-ed columnist for the Boston Herald).

. . . Delahunt’s people have offered one ridiculous excuse after another for his weeklong silence. The congressman, they have said, is traveling in Israel. He was, but it isn’t as though there are no phones there. He doesn’t remember much, they say. Talk to the Braintree police . . . Look, I’ve known Delahunt for years, and I’m not, at this point, reading too much into his actions. But Bishop’s alleged slayings constitute a huge tragedy, and how they happened is a matter of urgent business. There were not just red flags that she was criminally dangerous; there were...

Professor Amy Bishop, the tenure-seeking neurobiologist who cold-bloodedly killed three of her colleagues and seriously injured several more in her shooting spree, is now claiming indigence and has requested a public defender, rather than shelling money out of her own pocket, or that of her husband, James Anderson... Do you have a job or work for yourself?Does your husband or wife workDo you or your wife receive benefits from any other source?Do you have any money in any bank, savings and loan, credit union or any other place including cash on hand?Do you own anything of value (land, house, car,...

The Braintree Police Department, the Norfolk County Prosecutor and the Massachusetts State Police are trying to get their stories down as to why no charges were filed against Amy Bishop in the 1986 shooting death of her brother. Although the police file that had been missing for more than 20 years was found among the papers of a retired police investigator, now deceased, the case remains highly controversial. Shortly after being apprehended in ‘86, Bishop was released without being charged. Congressman William D. Delahunt was the Norfolk DA at the time. The current holder of the post, William R. Keating, is investigating the entire matter. It is...

If Bill Delahunt had done his job, three Alabama families wouldn’t be in mourning today. Period. If then-Norfolk District Attorney Delahunt, his staff or the police hadn’t been negligent, corrupt or both back in 1986, Amy Bishop would have been prosecuted for killing her brother. Based on what we know now - and what investigators knew then - probably some charge of manslaughter. But at the very least, Bishop probably would have had a felony gun conviction on her record, teaching her a tragic personal lesson. Instead, the political culture of Massachusetts taught her something very different: It’s not what...

An Alabama college professor accused of killing three colleagues during a faculty meeting is likely insane, and she can't remember the shootings, her attorney said. Roy W. Miller, the court-appointed attorney for Amy Bishop, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that his client has severe mental problems that appear to be paranoid schizophrenia. Miller discussed the case hours after hundreds of mourners attended the first funeral and memorial services for Bishop's slain co-workers.

Two senior House Republicans are accusing the Interior Department of “working in secret” on a plan to “lock up vast expanses of land in Western states.” A letter to President Obama Thursday from Reps. Doc Hastings (Wash.) and Rob Bishop (Utah) highlights an internal Interior list of 14 areas that could be designated as National Monuments under the Antiquities Act.

According to internal Department of Interior documents leaked to a Utah congressman and obtained exclusively by Fox News, the mostly public lands include Arizona deserts, California mountains, Montana prairies, New Mexico forests, Washington islands and the Great Basins of Nevada and Colorado -- totaling more than 13 million acres. Sources say President Obama is likely to choose two or three sites from the list, depending on their size, conservation value and the development threat to each one's environment.

The Alabama biology professor accused of killing three colleagues in a campus shooting was working on a novel that contained eerie similarities to her own life. Amy Bishop, charged with opening fire Friday at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, had an unpublished manuscript for a book titled "Amazon Fever," obtained by the Boston Globe, that focuses on a female scientist, Olivia, who struggles with depression and fears losing tenure. Bishop was denied tenure late last year, though police have yet to identify a motive in the killings. Her book refers to the University of Alabama as the MIT of...

The Norfolk district attorney ramped up his criticism of the 1986 investigation of Seth Bishop’s death yesterday, saying that it was “glaring’’ and “striking’’ that local police accounts of Amy Bishop’s armed standoff at a local business were not included in the State Police report or considered as part of the prosecutor’s decision about whether to pursue charges.

US Representative William Delahunt said yesterday that he is considering retiring from his congressional seat representing the South Shore and Cape Cod, although he portrayed his deliberations as routine and said they are not related to challenges from Republicans who are energized by Scott Brown’s upset victory in last month’s special Senate election.